


I’ve Got All This Ringing in My Ears and None on My Fingers

by Jojosugay



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Angst, Bad Humor, Beverly Marsh & Richie Tozier Are Best Friends, Eddie Kaspbrak Lives, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Smut, Fantasizing, Fix-It, Healing, Hospitalization, Internal Conflict, M/M, Masturbation, Minor Alcohol Usage, Minor Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Pining, Richie Tozier Loves Eddie Kaspbrak, Richie is really sad and gay :(
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:48:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23010481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jojosugay/pseuds/Jojosugay
Summary: Eddie survived Pennywise's attack and spends a week in a coma recovering, Richie doesn't leave his side for the whole week until Bev forces him to take care of himself. Richie worries and debates about his feelings for Eddie and how confessing will turn out.(Will be beta'd in the future)(The alcohol mention is minot twoards the end)
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 4
Kudos: 58





	I’ve Got All This Ringing in My Ears and None on My Fingers

_ Beep. _

  
  
  
  


_ Beep. _

  
  
  
  
  


“Richie?”

  
  


The sound of his name caused Richie to jerk awake, practically jumping out of his chair and crashing into Beverly.

“Bev, you scared the shit out of me.” he groaned, sitting up in the awfully uncomfortable hospital chair and trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

“Richie, you haven’t left that chair since Eddie got admitted last week.”

“That’s not true, I’ve gotten up a few times to take some shits and steal Jello cups from the cafeteria.”

“Ha. Ha.” Beverly rolled her eyes smiling a little “C’mon Rich we’re worried about you, sleeping in that chair has got to be killing your neck.”

_ Fuck.  _ Now that she mentioned it his neck  _ did  _ feel like it was about to explode.

“I’m fine, Bev. A little neck pain is nothing compared to what Eds is probably feeling right now.”

“He’s in good hands, and the nurse promised that she’d call us as soon as he wakes up.”

Richie shook his head running a hand through his greasy hair “what if something happens a-and they don’t get here quick enough a-”

“He has the best Doctor, Nurse, Surgeon, and Room in this entire hospital. Eddie is going to be fine and you can leave for 50 minutes to go take a shower because frankly you smell like shit.”

“Bev, I’m fine honestly, I’ve been wiping myself off in the sink a-”

Beverly quickly ripped Richie’s glasses off his face and tossed them in her purse zipping it shut and tucking it under her arm.

“ _ Richard. Trashmouth. Tozier. _ You will get your glasses back once you come with me to my hotel room, take a shower and eat  _ something  _ that grew out of the ground”

Richie sighed dejectedly, now that he couldn’t see anything the rest of his senses kicked into overdrive. The joint pain and stench finally catching up to him. He’s not a teenager anymore, sitting in the same spot for a week with only febreze showers and junk food just isn’t as fun as it used to be. Besides, it would be nice to  _ not _ think about Eddie's condition for once…

"Alright fine, but you gotta play seeing eye dog because I can't see shit random lady"

Beverly rolled her eyes again gently taking Richie's hand and dragging him out of the hospital. 

It felt weird, leaving Eddie.

Just leaving the room made Richie's chest tighten, it reminded him too much of how he almost had to leave Eddie  _ down there _ . He never wanted to leave him again. Not in like a gay way or anything, in like a totally cool Homie Way.

As soon as they were outside and the sunlight touched his skin it felt like a weight was lifted. It'd only been a week but the warmth of the sun felt amazing, it reminded him that  _ IT _ was gone and that it couldn't hurt him, or Eddie, or any of their other friends again. Richie closed his eyes and took in a deep breath through his nose, the fresh air filling his lungs and making him smile.

"Yoohoo earth to Richie, you okay?" Beverly asked standing next to her car

"Yup just taking a leak, sunlight gets me going" he gave one of his patented shit-eating grins before opening his eyes and getting in the passenger's seat. His knees ended up pressed against the dashboard almost touching his chest.

"Geez, Bev you driving around elves or some shit?"

Beverly leaned over pulling up the lever that allowed the seat to shoot all the way back leaving Richie’s seat a few inches behind her’s

"Not everyone has trees for legs, Richie."

She rolled her eyes, ignoring his comment and starting up the car, her hotel was really close to the hospital so they sat in silence for the few minutes that they were in the car. It was a comfortable silence, from the car all the way up to the hotel room. It was nice for Richie to not have something to say for once, he didn’t have any jokes or snarky comments just the peace of mind knowing that he wasn’t alone in his worrying or his suffering. As soon as Beverly opened the door he was immediately hit with the flowery smell of the hotel room combined with the various scents of Beverlys perfumes. It’s not that the hospital smelled bad but it just smelled clean, but Beverly’s room smelled like home.

He wasn’t even in the door 30 seconds before Beverly shoved him in the bathroom and locked the door from the outside.

“Holler when you’re done, and you might want to wash your hair twice”

Richie chuckled quietly slowly taking off his clothes and admiring the bathroom. It wasn’t extravagant in any way, lord knows nothing in this town is, but it was a lot nicer than the plastic covered bathrooms of the hospital. It was a clean white with pink accents on the wallpaper and the decorations. There were two sets of toiletries in the shower a flowery scented set and an AXE set, weird. Richie shrugged it off and turned the water knob all the way up to the hottest it would go. The water burned his skin but in a fantastic way, it was almost as if he could feel the dirt and grease melting off of his body. The heat seeped into his skin and soothed his sore joints, he just stood there for a minute not thinking or washing just standing there letting the water roll over his body and wash all of his stress down the drain.

Once he was calm and the soreness in his joints (mostly) melted away Richie used the AXE set and scrubbed his entire body harder than he ever had before. Just like Beverly had suggested he washed  _ everything _ twice. He hated the smell of the products but he didn’t care, he finally felt clean for the first time since they defeated  _ IT _ . As soon as he opened the shower curtains he had a horrifying realization.

Without his glasses on the white towels were invisible against the white bathroom. He artfully draped the shower curtain across his body making sure that it covered everything un-sightly.

“Bev” he shouted “My shitty eyes can’t see the towels can you come hand me one?”

He heard a loud groan before the latch on the bathroom door clicked followed by Beverly carefully walking in shielding her eyes “If I see  _ anything  _ disgusting you’re dead Tozier”

Richie let out a fake gasp “how dare you insinuate that anything on this flawless body is  _ gross _ . But to put aside your  _ rude  _ worries I have put on a shower curtain toga.”

“Whatever” she moved her hand and threw one of the towels at Rochie throwing it in his face.

“Thank you, Bev. Love you~” he sang smiling widely as she left.

“I have a change of clothes for you laying on the bed so just put on your boxers and I’ll give you your glasses back.”

Richie made a grunt of approval drying himself off before putting his boxers back on and grabbing the rest of his clothes, carrying them out to the main room. Laying on the bed was a gray blob of what he assumed was sweatpants with a smaller brown blob on top.  _ His glasses.  _ He quickly grabbed them and put them on,  _ oh the gift of sight you shall never be taken advantage of again _ . He could see better than he was able to before, Beverly must have cleaned them. Now that he could see again the white t-shirt next to the sweatpants was visible, he quickly slipped into the clothes before sitting on the bed. Richie quietly looked around the room, Beverly wasn’t there and it almost looked like there had been two people living in this hotel room. Infact where did these clothes come from? They were big on him so there’s no  _ way  _ that they were hers…

Beverly stepped back into the room from the patio door, she smelled like cigarettes but that was okay anything was better than those smells at the hospital.

“Thank you, Bev.” Richie said quietly staring at his feet “the shower, the glasses, everything. It’s nice to know someone cares about me.”

“We all care about you dumbass. I’m just the only one with enough balls to force you to care about yourself.” she came and sat down next to Richie putting her arm around him “you may be an asshole but you’re our asshole”

He laughed softly gently resting his head on her shoulder “I appreciate it a lot”

Beverly rested her head on his and lovingly rubbed his shoulder

“Not to ruin the moment or anything but you wanna tell me why half the shit in this hotel room doesn’t belong to you?”

“What...What do you mean? Everything here is mine which is...why it’s in my room.”

“So the condom wrapper in the trashcan is just from some weird makeup trick or…?”

Beverley’s face went bright red as she shoved Richie onto his side and quickly standing up crossing her arms “Promise me you won’t tell anyone tell anyone else”

“Not a soul. Scouts honor” Richie held up three fingers and crossed his heart “although I was never a boy scout so that promise is slightly useless.”

“ _ Richie _ ”

“I promise I’m not gonna tell anyone. You can trust me, Bev.”

Beverly sighed slowly pacing along the length of the bed

“Well after the whole killer alien clown thing, me and Ben started talking and then we had a long talk about like life and love and stuff and he had to check out of his hotel room so I may or may not have let him stay here for awhile…”

“Ooo Bev and Ben are shacking up together~” Richie gave a wide shiteating grin. “So you guys didn’t fuck in the clothes I’m wearing right or do I have to go take another boiling shower?”

She rolled her eyes and punched him in the arm “you really think I’d give you sex clothes? Besides we haven’t even...gone past hand stuff. I just didn’t wanna get the sheets dirty. I don’t wanna do anything until my divorce goes through...besides It’s been nice taking stuff slow-ish.”

“I’m happy for you two, and I won’t tell anyone I promise.”

“Good.” Beverly smiled sweetly gently taking Richie’s dirty clothes from him “now why don’t you go ahead and get some real rest while I go wash your clothes. And before you make any jokes they changed the sheets after I left this morning so they’re clean.”

“You can read me like a book Ms. Marsh. Can you wake me up when you come back?”

“Of course.” she put the clothes in a tote bag and walked over to the door “Sleep well, Rich.”

Beverly walked out of the door the sound of her footsteps getting quieter until they disappeared altogether. Richie stood up and gently put his glasses on the nightstand next to Beverly’s mouth guard. He gently peeled back the fluffy comforter and slipped underneath laying his head on the stack of pillows, letting out a sigh of comfort. The plush mattress felt  _ amazing  _ on his aching body, it’d only been a week since he slept in a proper bed but it felt like it’d been so much longer. Hospitals really do fuck up your sense of time. His mind tried to wander but he was way too tired to let his thoughts take over. He closed his eyes and let the comfort of the soft hotel mattress carry him off into a deep deep sleep.

-

All of a sudden he was being viciously shaken awake

“Richie! Richie!” Beverly shouted, shaking him even harder.

“What! What!” Richie shouted back pushing Beverly off and sitting up “You’re gonna give me shaken baby syndrome or some shit.”

“The hospital called, Eddie just woke up. There’s a pair of socks next to your glasses hurry up! They don’t know how long he’s gonna be awake!”

Richie’s eyes widened and his heart started racing, despite sitting in a hospital for a week he somehow managed to have so much he wanted to talk to Eddie about. He stumbled out of the bed haphazardly throwing on his glasses and putting the socks on the wrong feet. 

“How long ago did they call? Did they say anything about how he’s doing?” He said quickly shoving his shoes on

“About ten minutes ago, and they said his vitals are good but he’s still out of it from the painkillers. I already threw your crap in my car,  _ let's go.” _

Beverly grabbed his hand and literally yanked him out the door, for someone so small she sure was strong. She was trying to talk to Richie but he couldn’t hear her, his mind was racing with all the possibilities and all the words he had to say to Eddie. They were racing so fast his stomach started churning, what if Eddie doesn’t want him around, what if he’s too tired to even listen, what if, what if, what if. 

The car ride felt like hours, Richie spent the whole ride bouncing his leg so hard the entire car shook. As soon as Beverly parked the car he practically jumped out of the car jogging down the hallway skidding to a halt when he saw the rest of the loser’s club standing outside of Eddie’s room talking to each other and the nurse.

“Richie!” Stan said with a smile of relief on his face “Finally, do you know where Bev is?”

“I’m right here” Beverly said in an angry tone walking up behind Richie and gently punching his arm “ _ Someone  _ didn’t wait for me”

“Is that everyone then?” The nurse asked holding the clipboard to her chest

“Yeah that’s everyone. Can we just see him now?” Richie blurted out still bouncing his leg

“Okay, well he’s doing great but he’s still healing. We don’t want to overwhelm him so we’re going to let you guys in two at a time, family goes first so Mr. Tozier is there anyone else here that’s in the family?”

The losers immediately turned and glared at Richie who was smiling nervously. He quickly shot his arm around the closest person who happened to be Stan

“Yes! This is his cousin. We’re all very close...since the bear attack”

Stan rolled his eyes “Yeah, we’re cousins.”

The nurse nodded putting her hand on the door handle “Be careful if you touch him, no hugging, and if you need me I’ll be right outside so just hollar” 

Richie nodded enthusiastically dragging Stan through the door as soon as it was opened.

“Cousins? Really? And what was the bear attack about?” Stan whispered glaring at Richie

“Well they wouldn’t let me stay in the room with him unless we were immediate family so I said he was my brother and our parents weren’t here because a bear broke into their house and ate them so I was the closest family member.” he shrugged 

Stan sighed, pushing off Richie’s arm and walking over to Eddie’s bedside pulling up the extra chair that they had set out and taking a seat. Eddie’s head was laid to the side facing away from them, since he woke up they had removed a few tubes and he had clearly moved a little in the bed (of course not that much considering he had approximately a gazillion stitches). They’d also removed the stitches on his cheek, leaving behind the open stitch holes and some flakes of dry skin behind. He looked peaceful, a contrast to how he’d looked for the past week in the coma he looked so uncomfortable and in pain. He waited in the room for a full week and the one time he leaves Eddie decides to wake up, that was so like him.

“I think he might’ve fallen asleep again…” Stan mumbled with a disappointed sigh

Richie nodded in agreement patting Stan’s back before walking over and (despite the Nurses orders) giving Eddie a very gentle hug

“Careful asshole you’re gonna rip out my stitches.” Eddie grumbled in a raspy voice

Richie immediately jumped back, catching his foot on Stan’s chair and falling straight on his ass. Eddie smiled widely looking at him on the floor and letting out a small laugh before immediately wincing in pain.

“Don’t push yourself, Eddie you’re still healing.” Stan said gently putting his hand on Eddie’s shoulder “you’ll have plenty of time to make fun of Richie when you’re healed.”

Richie stood up and dusted himself off “Sorry, Eds. I thought you fell back asleep. I was just going to steal your pillow.”

“Well I did but then my  _ brother  _ barged in and woke me up.” 

“Sorry bro, ma and pa would kill me if they met you up in bear heaven.”

“That doesn’t even make any fucking sense the bears would be in bear heaven not-” Eddie started raising his voice but immediately stopped when his stitches started hurting. 

Seeing Eddie in pain made Richie’s heart sting and his stomach drop, he just wanted Eddie to be laughing and joking again. He felt like he was gonna throw up, Richie didn’t wanna say anything else that made things worse, maybe he should just stop talking for once in his life and listen. Live in the moment.

“No no take it easy. I’m sorry, Eds. I was just trying to lighten the mood. How are you feeling?”

“Like shit. My organs hurt and my ass is sore from laying on my back, and have they been cleaning the room daily because I saw a documentary on NBC a-”

“Eddie-” Stan cut him off “You have the best doctor in the hospital you’ve been taken care of. Don’t worry we got you.”

Eddie visibly relaxed into the mattress “Thank you guys...I appreciate it. Are the other’s here? It’d be nice to see everyone.”

“Yeah, we’re all here Eddie. The rest are outside, we didn’t want to overwhelm you so we’re taking turns.”

He nodded slightly smiling gently “that’s great, that’s great…”

There was a minute of silence, they were all aware of the elephant in the room; it was just about who brought it up.

“Did we beat it?” Eddie asked in a hushed tone

“Yeah...we beat it…” Stan responded gently rubbing Eddie’s shoulder again.

“Good. Good” Eddie nodded, smiling wider “You’ve been awfully quiet, Trashmouth, killer clown got your tongue?”

“Nah, just happy you’re awake again, Eds.” Richie said with a chuckle

All of a sudden the door creaked open, Beverly’s head poking out “Um hello? Some of us would like to talk to Eddie before pigs learn how to fly.” 

“Right, Right sorry I forgot that all the 3’s need to visit too” Richie retorted, giving Beverly a cocky wink before turning back to Eddie “I’ll see you later, okay? Heal up fast so you can yell at me, Spaghetti man” he gently patted Eddie’s arm before practically running out of the room before he could respond.

His heart was racing like crazy, and his arms were shaking. Just a small panic attack no biggie, just cross your arms and tap your foot and listen really really intensely to whatever your friends have to say to ignore it.

They had some small talk outside the room waiting for everyone to get a turn visiting Eddie. After everyone had gone in the nurse went in alone for a few minutes to do a quick checkup and talk to him. She came back out scribbling something on the clipboard in her hands. 

“Okay, we're going to keep him for a few more days to keep an eye on his vitals and injuries once we remove the stitches, but once he’s released we’re gonna need someone to take care of him 24/7. Preferably somewhere with one level and a lot of open floor space because he’ll be in a wheelchair with regular checkups for a while until he’s fully healed. Family would be ideal but anyone who can take care of him and drive him to check-ups can take him.”

“I can” Richie jumped in not giving any of the others a chance to say anything “I just bought that single floor a few streets down, and I don’t have a real job.”

“Perfect. We’ll give you a call once we set the release date.” She told everyone to drive safely and walked off

“Since when did you buy a house here?” Bill said with raised eyebrows

“Like a week ago, I’m famous. Famous people legally have to own multiple houses; it's in our contract. Besides the rest of you have real jobs miles away, except Mike but he lives in a death trap so that doesn’t count.”

“Are you sure? I mean don’t you have another tour coming up?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. I’m famous enough that I can push stuff back and I’ll still sell out. Besides I can do all the writing and meetings here on the internet, and then you’ll all have three reasons to come visit until Eddie’s better.”

“If you insist, but we’re not letting you stay alone.” Beverly butted in “I have like a million assistants and a pocket scanner that I can boss around so I’ll stay behind too. My hotel has an extended stay option so I can just stay there and help out for awhile.”

“M-Me too.” Ben mumbled, clearly only staying behind for Bev.

“Thank you guys...I really appreciate it. I got a bunch of extra rooms and booze if you guys wanna come over and have an old fashioned high school sleepover.”

Richie was terrified of staying the night alone, in all honesty he hadn’t spent a night alone in 28 years. If he didn’t have a hookup, or a drunk friend that was staying over he had a live in assistant that he was chummy with. Overall he bought that house for him and Eddie...being in it without him made Richie’s stomach churn. He looked over to Beverly begging with his eyes, she was always the best at convincing everyone to do something.

“Yeah, of course Rich! Sounds like fun. C’mon guys, when was the last time we had a good old fashioned drunken sleepover.” Bev said with a smile “c’mon I can drive you all there and then bring you back here in the morning to grab your cars and see Eddie.”

“What the hell, I think we deserve a little fun” Stan chimed in

The rest of the losers agreed in a staggered unison and followed Bev out to her car, squeezing in the backseat as best they could. Beverly purposely drove a little slower and took the long way around so they could all have a good old fashioned road trip like experience. Jamming out to tunes and laughing and talking. As soon as they walked in the door and ogled around at how nice it was, Beverly rolled up her sleeves and B-lined for the kitchen so she could make everyone dinner while Richie pulled out the alcohol and they all started  _ really  _ having fun.

Within less than an hour everyone was  _ wasted,  _ full _ ,  _ and giggling at everything even remotely funny while they sat on the empty living room floor playing some old board games that the previous owners left in the basement. Overall, they all had a lot of fun especially Richie who was relieved to  _ finally _ be able to shut off his brain and stop thinking about Eddie for the first time since he remembered his existence...his soft brown hair that perfectly complimented his long dark eyelashes and his beautiful deep brown eyes. The way his mouth would flick up in a very small smile whenever Richie would crack a joke or the way his voice cracked when he yelled...everything about Eddie was intoxicatingly perfect. Even the things that Richie had only imagined, how soft his lips were...how amazing they’d feel wrapped around his co-

…

Fuck.

Now that was all he could think about, Eddie's hair all messy, his lips red and swollen covered in sweat and spit as he bobbed his head on Richie's dick. His pants immediately got tighter, he did his best to casually cross his legs and look like he was just adjusting. Despite the embarrassment and extreme crippling fear of his friends seeing, Richie’s mind wouldn’t stop racing with thoughts of different things he’d always dreamt of Eddie doing to him and vice versa.

Shit, now he really can’t hide his erection anymore.

“I’m uh not feeling too good, the back pain’s setting in...I think I’m gonna go head to bed. Bathroom’s at the end of the hall, just wander around until you find a vertical surface to sleep on, and there’s extra blankets and shit in the basement.”

Before anyone could even make a comment Richie shot up from his seat and sprinted to his room shouting back “Okay g’night love you, don’t puke on the rug.”

He shut the door hard and locked it. His heart was beating out of his chest as he wrestled with the zipper on his jeans. Luckily since he’d only recently moved in there wasn’t much furniture in the house especially the bedrooms. His room only had a mattress and a bedside table with a small lamp on top. As soon as he got off his pants Richie flopped on the bed and yanked off his boxers. His dick was so hard that it was throbbing, if he was this hard just thinking about Eddie’s he was in fucking trouble if Eddie ever actually did suck him off.

He immediately grabbed his dick and started stroking it, Richie had to bite his cheek to keep himself from erupting in loud moans. He closed his eyes and all of a sudden Eddie’s lips were wrapped around his cock, moaning and bobbing his head slowly. Richie’s toes curled as Eddie’s hands started trailing along his body. Squeezing his thighs before rubbing his thumb against Richie’s glory trail and finally landing on his ass massaging it gently with the rhythm of his bobs. His hot tongue on Richie’s head made him gasp and groan thrusting his hips up into Eddie’s mouth faster and faster tangling his hands in his hair and gripping tightly. Richie bit his cheek as he came hard all over his hand and Ben’s sweatpants, snapping him out of his fantasy and cursing himself for cumming so soon.

After he calmed down from his high Richie cleaned himself off with a tissue and threw Ben’s clothes in his hamper. He double checked that no one could see him, despite being in his own room and slowly opened his dresser drawer and pulled out one of Eddie’s hoodies. It didn’t smell like him anymore of course but...something about wearing it made him know everything would be alright. He carefully slipped it on and zipped it up as much as he could before crawling back into bed and placing his glasses on the nightstand. Richie gently balled up the end of the sleeves in his hands and buried his face in them.

“Goodnight, Eddie.” he whispered, placing a soft kiss to the dark red fabric.

*******

Richie woke up to the smell of pancakes and bacon he hadn't had a proper breakfast in  _ years,  _ and it made his stomach ache. He got out of bed rubbing his eyes before putting his glasses back on and walking over to his dresser. Giving Eddie's hoodie another kiss and whispering good morning he slipped it off putting it back in the drawer neatly. He pulled out an old tour shirt and some jeans slipping into them before carefully walking out of his room making his way to the kitchen.

Walking through the living room he saw all the losers spread around the living room out cold. Stan was curled up on the couch using his coat as a blanket, Mike was asleep on the arm chair, while Bill and Ben were snoring on the floor on top of a few blankets. Richie laughed a little at how stupid everyone looked before sauntering into the kitchen to find Bev cooking. Walking up behind her Richie put his chin on her shoulder with a loud sigh wrapping his arms around her waist.

“Usually people only cook for me when they have bad news. Did you get a ligma or something?”

“Oh my god, Richie. Ligma? Really? You think I’m gonna fall for that?”

“You’re right” he sighed “you’re such a matterbaby.”

“What's a matterbaby?”

“Nothing, baby. Whatsa matter with you?”

Bev rolled her eyes and softly elbowed Richie in the ribs

“I thought we all deserved a nice breakfast after our first sleepover in almost 30 years.”

Then they both just stopped talking, enjoying each other's company and the quiet morning noises that their sleepy little town always made.

“Do you think everything will work out with, Eddie?” Richie whispered after awhile

Bev reached down and gently caressed the back of Richie’s hand “Yeah...I think it will, Rich, and if it doesn’t I’m right here to get you through it.”

Richie smiled softly wrapping his arms tighter around her, she was right...she had to be...

**Author's Note:**

> This fic took me months to finish and I'm not even done yet! I'm so excited to finally share it with you all I've worked so so hard on it 💜


End file.
